Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Resurrection of Herod

Today we watched another hour of that classic film Jesus of Nazareth as part of our family Lenten observance. The striking scene in the second hour is when King Herod the Great demands the death of all male children two years and under in Bethlehem.

"Kill! Kill them all!Kill! Kill them all!Better the innocent should die then the guilty should escape!"

Never mind I think he sounds like Prince John in Disney's version of Robin Hood. He is just as angry and petulant, but even more dangerous since he knows no boundaries except his own comfort and power.

In the same way, today, it's a bad day to be a baby. What is it with left-wing social engineering? Every other day they advocate a new kind of death: abortion, ESCR, euthanasia, infanticide; and follow it up with policies of sterility and eugenics: birth control, gay "marriage", test tube babies, selective reduction, anti-religious bigotry.

It's SO sterile: death and hatred, race politics and income redistribution, enforced groupthink. "We're tolerant and open minded -- and we'll kill anyone who disagrees with us."

It's easy to get down -- bad news abounds. But just as God had a plan for His Son to escape the Herod of two thousand years ago, God will deliver us from this present darkness and the modern day Herods.

And not only escape, but triumph.

So as we make our way through this Lent, we have the opportunity to meditate on the mystery of evil and the awesome redemptive power of God to make all things new. Let it begin with me.